Innovation as Social Action
从社会行动视角剖析创新概念，揭示其内在语义矛盾，并综合功能主义与冲突理论，提出将创新理解为心智活动与体力劳动辩证统一的解释框架。
The paper explicates the concept of innovation through the lens of social action. It is argued that the term ‘innovation’ carries within it certain semantic contradictions that cannot be resolved without recourse to the theory of social action underlying the process of innovation. By revisiting a number extant concepts and applications within innovation studies and unpacking these in the light of functionalist and conflict theoretical notions of social action, paradoxes as well as fruitful paths for empirical and analytical exploration are identified. A synthesis of how innovation may be interpreted in the language of social action is suggested, which builds on the dialectics between action as mental activity and physical work.